ut how shall he do that if
her heart changes? As long as she hopes to snare him I am not
afraid of her. But what if it should be she who grows afraid as
we get nearer to Ali Higg's nest? A woman afraid is worse than a
man with a dagger in the dark. Suppose she bolts to Ali Higg and
lays information against us--what then?"

I tried to argue him out of his anxiety, because I wanted to
sleep when my turn came. My habit of never looking for trouble is
a lovely one until trouble starts; but the Sikh, being only a
heathen, could not be persuaded; so I had to promise him that,
turn about, four hours on and four off, he and I would watch
Ayisha faithfully until such time as Grim should make other
disposition of our services or there should be no more need.

"And I think, sahib, that it will be best to shoot or stab her
without argument if she turns treacherous."

But I never stabbed or shot a woman yet. I have a loose-kneed
prejudice against it. I said so.

"Then, sahib, if it be your turn on watch, and you detect
treachery, summon me, and I will send her to _Jehannum."_ [Hell]

"I think we ought to speak to Jimgrim about it," I objected. "He
might have other plans."

The Sikh turned that over in his mind during one whole circuit of
the palm-trees, stroking his great beard with his right hand the
while as if the friction would inspire his brain.

"Jimgrim will say she is a woman and therefore must not be killed
in any event," he answered at last. "But that is of the nature of
his error, all men suffering delusion in some form, since none is
perfect. If we submit the problem to him he will answer wrongly;
but we shall then have received orders, which, as faithful men,
we must not disobey.

"As concerns ourselves, being men without specific orders on that
point, the question is simple: Of that woman and that man, if the
one must live and the other die, which shall it be? And I say
Jimgrim shall live, if I die afterward even by his hand for it."

It sounded logical. The arguments with which an unselfish, honest
fellow deceives himself into wrong-doing always do bear quite a
lot of investigation. But I was at sea before the mast once,
where I learned painfully that the captain commands the ship; not
even the notions of the buckiest bucko mate amount to as much as
a barnacle's bootlace if the old man disagrees from them.

"What makes you think he doesn't understand the obvious danger of
Ayisha?" said I.

"No man from